


Wagahai wa Akihiko de Aru

by aohataaa



Category: Given (Anime), Given (Manga)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, Light-Hearted, M/M, Manga Spoilers, Mild Drama, Romance, Slice of Life, Supernatural (Genre), and pets caring for their humans, caring for a pet, cats know when their owners are sad, low-key pet appreciation, mutual comfort, simple communication dilemma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24563317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aohataaa/pseuds/aohataaa
Summary: Akihiko wakes up one day as a cat and it might be entirely his fault. Clueless about adjusting to his new form, he ends up staying with Haruki again and realizes how he's seemingly re-living his past self.Or is he?With an upcoming gig on the band's schedule, one crumb leads to another as Akihiko spends his days at Haruki's apartment figuring out how to return to his normal life in time to perform as Given's drummer. Enlightened by his bandmates' little ways, Akihiko learns that even in his wee kitty glory, he was never any less of a human when all this surreal confusion began, and lifting the harmless curse is not as mind-boggling as he thought.
Relationships: Kaji Akihiko/Nakayama Haruki
Comments: 11
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Light spoilers in the manga: Setting of the story is around post-Chap 29 Extra before the start of the Mix_ chapters and the debut offer.

Prologue  
  


Day 3

Akihiko  
  


Fifteen seconds left to prep.

Warm cheers and eager whistles resounded inside The Play House music hall as the curtain was about to rise, revealing the next band slated on the guestlist called Given. On the other side of the screen, Ritsuka strummed a few chords on his telecaster, checking his effect pedal with a timely press of his foot. Mafuyu's bright red Gibson gleamed blue under the low lights as the boy carefully adjusted his microphone stand, twisting the knob as he lowered the microphone to his height.

"You guys doing okay?" Haruki asked, fiddling with his amp and plucking a few strings of his Fender. Behind him was a man seated at his drum set, warming up the balls of his feet as he tested the bass drum with his right and the hi-hat with his left.

"We're good," affirmed Ritsuka, giving the bandleader a thumbs up. The vocalist Mafuyu also nodded then Haruki turned to the man furthest to the back of the stage.

"How about you, good to go?" added the bassist, turning Akihiko's throat dry and stuffed with cotton when the drummer realized Haruki wasn't looking at him at all.

"Hey, man. You lost?" the stage manager called his attention with a whisper, beckoning him to step back from the side curtain and away from the occupied stage. "Band members only, dude. If you want autographs and stuff, you'd have to wait after their turn."

Struck dumb out of his wits, Akihiko could only follow the man's instructions and descended the staircase, exiting the backstage premises with light-headed drunkenness and a parched mouth. He entered the main audience hall, just as any attendant of a gig at The Play House would, squeezing himself into the crowd of fellow music enthusiasts and ardent fans of the underground band about to perform.

The overhead spotlights turned dim, the backlights switched on; the crowd clapped and hooted as the curtain screen raised and Akihiko counted _four_ Given members on the stage—three of them he knew well with their forms and instruments outlined silver by the backlights. Shadows gracefully veiled the members' features as they waited in cued silence and when Akihiko heard the clack of drumsticks echoing throughout the hall, he heard more of a chisel chipping away the thumping artery encased in his ribcage he pathetically called a heart.

_Tap, tap, tap…_

Three counts exactly as he would do. At four, the stage came to sun-drenched life as the beginning chords of Fuyu no Hanashi blasted from the amplifiers and speakers; the floor reverberated as a music avalanche of guitars and percussions filled the hall, suffocating Akihiko in a pile of snow with an icy numbness flaring in his chest. As close as he was to the front row in the audience, not once did any of the members share a glance with him as he watched clueless from his spot, standing behind the metal railing separating him from the stage.

Mafuyu's rich coppery hair glowed winter white under the fully brightened ceiling lights, belting his lyrics about loss and yearning and reluctant goodbyes. Uenoyama strummed his chords with effortless mastery and aplomb that any teen his age would laud and admire, tapping the beat with his foot, deft fingers intricately dancing over metal strings without even looking at his fretboard. And then there was the adroit bassist, the band leader Haruki, plucking his wood-patterned Fender at Mafuyu's right. Swaying wistfully side to side, Haruki's veins were plunged deep into the music the rest of the members were playing, keeping the song's pace steady and unbent with the low guiding hum of his bass.

Reaching one-third into their song, Akihiko was there petrified as people tried to bump him aside with their phone cameras held out to record the stunning performance. His blood simmered as Haruki's untied hair swayed to and fro, thinking of greedily combing his fingers through those silken locks, only left with an itchy hand as the bassist leaned back exposing his slender neck.

_This is isn't right._

Akhiko knew every practiced note and corrected morsel of that song and could play the percussion role even in his sleep. Yet why wasn't he the one sitting behind that drum set and hitting the snares? Why wasn't he on that stage instead, playing as Given's drummer? What was he doing there as an anonymous bystander like he didn't even exist?

Seconds turned into minutes and the song was reaching the end of the second chorus. Akihiko's stomach twisted and tangled into knots as he caught Haruki glancing at the drummer _—their_ drummer—while Mafuyu continued to sing _._

_We made that part, remember?_

Haruki smiled, playing his guitar as their song reached the familiar instrumental bridge. Akihiko tightened his grip on the rail, wanting to crush the metal as easy as crumpling an aluminum beer can, watching the fluid swish of Haruki's hair as he faced the shadowed percussionist.

_Are you enjoying this? Are you seriously enjoying yourself right now?_

Akihiko saw the twinkle in Haruki's eye as he and the drummer wove their sounds together, earning generous whistles and cheers from the audience as they magnified the brilliance of their specially-composed piece. The supportive crowd was in awe and delight, but the numbing cold in Akihiko's chest was already pushing him to his limit, tempting him to pull out his frozen heart and smash it on the floor.

His boyfriend's grin spoke in volumes to Akihiko's ears, telling him everything he needed to know. He couldn't look at the stage anymore and stared blankly at the white spotlights, breathing in and out as though they were his last, choosing to jump off a precipice to meet his end than spend another grueling second inside that hall…  
  


***  
  


"I'm back," rang Haruki's voice from the genkan along with the click of the door as it shut.

Hearing the crinkling of plastic and familiar footsteps on the wooden floor, Akihiko opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by darkness and a low-roofed shelter peeping at a stretch of horizontal light where he could see Haruki's bare feet padding toward his kitchenette. 

"Akihiko?" he called out, right on time as the roommate in question poked his head from underneath the sofa. "Oh. There you are. I'm sure you're hungry," he said with a smile, setting down the take-out food on the table filling the room with a mouth-watering aroma.

_I smell something good. I smell a feast,_ Akihiko gushed, approaching Haruki's leg and staring patiently at the man-in-charge of portioning their dinner.

"Sorry for making you wait." Haruki finished washing his hands and grabbed a couple of plates fit for two from his dish rack, setting them on the table. "The lines were pretty long again at the yakitori shop so I looked for another place instead. Let's see here… I got…"

_Yakiniku?_ Akihiko's tail swished excitedly as he smelled the familiar aroma of grilled meat.

"Yakiniku," Haruki announced, pulling out a box of take-out and set one at the center of their spread. "I bought…"

_Beef tongue?_

"Beef tongue…"

_And kalbi?_

Haruki set down another box and opened the lid. "And kalbi…"

_No way_ , gaped Akihiko. _How about steak strips?_

"Oh, and some steak strips. That's one of your favorites, I think?" said his boyfriend, splitting a pair of disposable chopsticks and began setting a few pieces of varied meat on a plate.

_HE'S PSYCHIC._ Akihiko told himself not to cry.

"Ahhh, your tail is doing that funny hook again," Haruki chuckled, pulling out a chair for his roommate. "Well? Come on up here, you."

In one leap, Akihiko slid onto the seat and settled down, observing Haruki unload the rest of his groceries and trying his best not to immediately devour the freshly grilled food set one easy paw-swing away from him.

"Nn? What's wrong?" said Haruki with a perplexed raise of his brow.

Akihiko answered with a short meow and his boyfriend sighed with a fond shake of his head.

After stashing away his canvas tote in the cupboard, Haruki joined a hungry cat at the table and picked his meat of choice, piling some on his plate with Akihiko's button-round pupils observing his every move. When everything was set, he folded his hands together while his boyfriend bowed his head. "Itadakimasu," he said in thanks to their dinner, and only then did the full-grown feline prop himself up on the table and helped himself to his meal _._

_Ahh, this is so good. This is so goooood,_ Akihiko gushed, shamelessly stuffing his face with food after a long day of lazing around the sofa and untangling himself from a ball of yarn, manners all forgotten.

Chewing his own share of meat from the opposite side of the table, Haruki watched Akihiko enjoying his rather fancy supper, glanced at the wall clock, and breathed a tired sigh. "Please someone tell me this is just a dream," he groaned and only received silence as a reply.

Mouth filled with savory grilled beef, Akihiko could hardly contain his giddy happiness to even notice his boyfriend's obvious conundrum, licking his plate and his paws, not even bothered if he had meat drippings on his chin or bristly whiskers. _I'm in meat paradise,_ he said, beaming at Haruki with a mewl. _I have a cozy bed, a wonderful boyfriend who gives me plenty of cuddles. I'm also well-fed. This is too generous. I'm blessed. I'm so darn blessed. I'm going to guard this warm private domicile and protect my human with every strand of my furry being._

...Boy, was he a lucky cat indeed.  
  


*** *** ***  
  


Chapter 1  
  


Day 0

Akihiko   
  


Three beer glasses clinked, followed by a pair of zombie grunts instead of the usual enthusiastic 'Kanpai!'

Boisterous laughter and constant prattling from a group of gyaru friends at the other table filled the late-night ramen house where Akihiko was about to have his dinner, accompanying two people mired in lassitude by the evident slope of their shoulders.

"Take-chan, he was seriously about to wage war right then and there," said Haruki, setting down his glass and resting his head on their table as they waited for their food orders to arrive. "Over one dolly, you hear me? _One_ dolly that he couldn't borrow from the equipment room."

"Meh. Resourcefulness," Kouji replied drowsily, gazing at the window with dark bags under his eyes. "Remember that time when we made a DIY one during third year?"

"Yeah…" Haruki wheezed, cheek pillowed by a table napkin. "Fun. And we never tried filming a dramatic chasing scene ever again."

"That genre was the best."

"Our class _drew lots_. And you practically shoved my hand in the box." 

"Oh yeah," the bespectacled man noted, mindlessly scrolling through his emails on his phone. "You guys in for session night at The Garage?"

"Yes," Haruki replied, turning his head to share a glimpse at the person at his right. "The band list was a surprise though, they have Skylark and The Cinders. Aren't those two already debuted groups?"

Kouji took another gulp of his drink, switched his app to his band's Twitter page and checked the feed. "The first one yes. The other one, pre-debuting as far as I know. They already had a scout approach them before and their manager is hoping to make things official soon enough. Funny though, my friend said they're looking for an additional member for the band to… I think he said 'to draw out everyone's potential.' Going twin bass isn't bad at all, but honestly, their music style is already solid as it is. That's only on me, though." He typed a couple of replies and pressed a few retweets with a shrug.

"Hehhh. So he was asked? He must be pretty good then."

"Thing is," Kouji added, setting down his phone on their table. A photo of a painting flashed on the man's screen wallpaper and Akihiko guessed the artist was none other than Uenoyama Yayoi. "He already has a band of his own. Snakes and Ladders, ever heard them before?"

Akihiko shook his head, same as Haruki on his left.

"This friend, he's turning mid-twenties this year, lives on his own and shuffling different part-time jobs to make ends meet. You'd hardly notice he's… uh… ehhh, shall we say more on the upper side of the society tier? He loves music more than anything, but his dad is already pulling him into his corporate firm since… well, even you two haven't heard of their band, right? If he joins The Cinders, _then_ he might be on to something and show his dad his music path isn't all for naught."

"But if he does take the offer…" prodded Akihiko, already foreseeing the plot unraveling in his head.

"…He'll leave Snakes and Ladders behind," Haruki continued, and Kouji leaned back in his seat nodding to their conclusions.

"Well, that puts a damper on things," said Haruki, straightening up in his seat while Akihiko curiously started googling not-so-random things on his phone. "How long has he been with his band?"

"Senior high school," Kouji supplied.

"Ehh! That long?!"

"That _strong_ , you mean," the man clarified, smiling wryly at Haruki. "Puts more things into perspective, huh. Their thick as thieves already and can churn out songs just like _that_ ," he snapped his fingers, "and they've probably even memorized each other's playing styles by now, not to mention all those gigs they did over the past years."

Finding a few outdated blogs and a Twitter account with a fair amount of followers, Akihiko cleared back his screen and set down his phone on his lap. "What does the friend think?"

"Next week at the gig, he'll see Cinders and think it over," Kouji replied, tucking away his phone in his back pocket as a waiter arrived with a tray of their orders.

Bowls of ramen and side dishes of dumplings were set on their table and the two best friends droned their gratitude to their meals then tucked-in to their late dinner, casual banters set aside that was neither too awkward nor strange for the typically lone wolf Kaji Akihiko. None of them talked, slurping their hearty noodles and savoring the salty goodness of their ramen broth, one would think they weren't friends or acquaintances at all minding their own food. Sampling their order of gyoza, trickles of warmth kindled in Akihiko's stomach as he sat there with Haruki and his best friend, sharing a growingly common quietness with them and not feeling out of place at all.  
  


***  
  


"We all have to get by though," he mused aloud, waiting for Haruki to catch up behind him. The arch of the market lane at Haramachida was a few blocks away and Akihiko was hoping to catch his preferred shopping mart still open for some last-minute things before returning to his apartment.

"Huh? How can you say that?" Haruki furrowed his brows, shoulder carrying his weighty canvas tote with materials for his new filming project. "That friend formed that band since they were in senior high school, remember? Senior high school! Bands that've lasted more than ten years together, that's real dedication I tell you. I'm sure they've butted heads one way or another, they've made songs that flopped, but they chose to keep going. They chose to keep making music."

Slanting his lips, Akihiko rewound his words and wanted to smack his head against a telephone post. "Right. I got lost for a bit," he told Haruki, stirring his thoughts as he did with his soup spoon a while ago, fishing out the bits of meat and vegetables that had sunk to the bottom of his ramen bowl.

What would his friend decide?

Akihiko couldn't erase the story from his head; to climb up the music profession ladder, even a tiny step and find a scrap of ease every morning when he'd wake up knowing he could live through another day. Spending months moving from place to place until last year, not even having his own bed to sleep in, Akihiko understood somehow what it felt walking on eggshells every day of his questionably independent young adult life. He had no proper home, leeched spaces from other people, took random jobs or favors even for a paltry sum to get by and 'earn' his keep.

They were memorable days but not the kind one would happily flip through like opening a pretty scrapbook of colorful paper and glitter. They were hard lessons perfectly etched at the back of Akihiko's skull that reminded him he could bury himself that low in his life, that he had even succumbed to desperation and sold himself raw during his spare time, then had the gall to show up at the practice studio meeting his bandmates and have fun with a façade that said he had everything kept together. 

"Hmm? Are you… looking over new part-time jobs again?" Haruki asked, concern carefully drawn on his face.

"No, it's not that," replied Akihiko, scratching an imaginary itch on his nape. "When you approached me back then to form a band, I loved music too but not the way I see it now. With Ue and Mafuyu, and of course _you_ and all that happened before I moved out of your apartment. But if that was the past me at that same fork in the road… I… I might have…" He trailed off, shaking his head, hoping the thoughts fell out of his brain as dead leaves would fall off tree branches in the cold days of late autumn.

"A breakthrough chance, huh?" Haruki's gaze focused on their path ahead but Akihiko wondered if they were walking on one concrete sidewalk that led to a common destination. "Bands switch or replace members a lot whether they're mainstream or not, it's inevitable for some and pretty normal, right? If you or Given get an offer even from an indie label to take this one step further, that'd be awesome too, I suppose." Haruki tried cracking a smile, switching his heavy tote bag to his other shoulder and Akihiko bit his lip.

"Our studio fees pile up fast, a recording session rounds about 80K per person, there are also bills to cover every month. Debut offers don't come easy that makes you think 'Ah! There might be light at the end of this tunnel after all!' or something like that, yeah? It's a tough and bumpy road of music too if you look at the other side of the coin and... sure, there's some point to what you mentioned, I guess. We're all trying to get by as you said…"

Gods be damned if they didn't strike lightning on this dumb excuse of a breathing human named Akihiko! He clenched his jaw, gritted his teeth, rinsed off the putrid taste of self-pity and helplessness from his palate. What had he just done? This was Haruki he was talking to! _The_ Nakayama Haruki who was as every bit of a refulgent being to shine colors upon his black and white world—a graduate student who could balance his work, studies, music, and part-time job without complaint, and there Akihiko was bemoaning his daily grind as though he was the only one who had grades to maintain, rent to settle, and other necessary dues to keep in check!

How dare he entertain the thought of what he lacked, being stirred once again by the myrmidons of his rancor when he had people—no matter how few—who still gave him their time, patience, and personal space for him to squeeze into! Debuting _alone_ was not solely a golden ticket that would sweep all his toil and troubles away into a dustpan and never think of them again. Yet why was he still playing music? Why did he decide to pick up his violin more often, head to Shimokita earlier than the rest of his bandmates to practice on the drums? Why was he even getting up in the morning to start another day, put on decent clothes, and step out the door knowing where he was headed?

"Eh? EH?! Something wrong? Are you okay? Do you feel sick??"

Akihiko ran a hand down his face, wanting to throw up. "A bit," he admitted, pulling Haruki aside to a quiet corner of an alley. Curtained by the shadows, he guided his boyfriend to a nearby wall, hands not leaving their grip on either of the man's shoulders. Before Haruki could squeal completely panicked, Akihiko leaned down and gently pressed their foreheads together, closed his eyes, and slowly counted ten to one.

Ten was the hour his favorite shopping mart closed on weekends.

Nine was the total subjects he had in his curriculum as a second-year university student under the Music course, though at first, he was only aiming for eight.

On weekdays, he would wake up around seven, occasionally saving extra time to drop by Haruki's work at the café for a dose of freshly brewed coffee. 

Six was the usual hour he would practice his drums at the studio while Mafuyu and Ritsuka would sometimes arrive earlier around five in the afternoon.

Four was the count of taut strings on his violin, same as the members of the band Given.

Three was the number of words for 'I love you,' and two certain people in his life have firmly taught him he should also cradle his own heart as much as he would do for others, even one short sway as the days go by.

One was the person born into this Earth named Kaji Akihiko—the one and only as far as he knew—living his youth walking on a pirate plank and learning to keep putting one foot in front of the other even if he glimpsed the depths below that awaited his fall. 

"'Kay. Now I'm good," he said, pulling away from their intimate distance with a doe-eyed Haruki unable to connect dots in his head. 

"What. Was. That."

"I uh, I just remembered what I'm doing here right now, why I'm here," replied Akihiko, ignoring the warmth in his cheeks.

"And that is?" Haruki ogled at him, eyebrows raised in plain wonder. 

Akihiko sighed, dropping his head in defeat.

_I'm looking at my answer right now._

"I'm enjoying music everyday and that's a load of wealth in itself," he answered, leading the way as they slipped out the alley and back into the busy sidewalk of Machida once more.

Minutes passed, streets were crossed, and soon they were nearing the market lane where Akihiko's errands called out to him from beyond the arch signage that read 'Nekomata-cho'. Cars whooshed past in the ever-busy roads even at the late hour past nine, over-timed salarymen in their pressed blazers strode by, rail passes in hand with their mouths thinned to a tired frown. Holding Haruki's hand as they wove through the day-weary crowd, Akihiko lightly gripped the fingers interlaced with his own, cradling the little anchor that held him from being swept away into the turbulent sea of people and attractive lights.

"Ahh, I'm picking up a few things from here," he said, bitter to let go of Haruki who had somehow managed not to blush as red as a ripe tomato, vulnerably holding hands for anyone and everyone to notice or ignore. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

Haruki squeezed his hand and avoided his gaze, feigning a little pout. Akihiko resisted pulling his boyfriend close enough to place a kiss on that temptingly exposed forehead, prying eyes or none, be done with their day and greet another morning to see each other again.

"Right. Night, you," answered Haruki, letting go of Akihiko's grasp. He waved goodnight with his usual caring grin and Akihiko waved back, watching Haruki's crown of blonde hair shrink to the size of his thumb in the distance.

"Don’t pull another all-nighter! You know I can easily tell!" Akihiko yelled, startling passers-by with his booming voice.

"Don't forget to mute your violin when your practice! Be kind to your neighbors!" Haruki squeaked from afar, awkward and embarrassed but knew he could also tease back. 

And even from the other side of the street, Akihiko could tell his boyfriend's face was now flushed rosy pink. Yes, that was Haruki's normal face to him now, nothing was out of the ordinary for him right there; nothing odd or slightly askew from reality as he turned heels and entered the less crowded market lane.  
  


***  
  


"Oopsie! Oh dear, oh dear," said a lady vendor after knocking over a few items from her selling rack of trinkets and charms that hung in display hooks of her humble stand. On-lookers bowed to excuse themselves as they passed by; an unsaid 'I'm sorry, I can't help right now' strewn on their faces as they hurried along the shopping district until a tall young man with a sugar-white hair stopped in his tracks to help the troubled woman.

"Oh, here…" Akihiko bent down to pick up the fallen charms scattered on the floor and piling them in his arm. "I'll get them, no worries."

"Ahh, bless you, dearie," the lady said, watching the stranger clear up her own clumsy mess. "This aunt of yours is getting a little wobbly on the legs even when she doesn't even have a single strand of gray hair yet on her head!"

Gathering all the hand-sewn keychains and embroidered trinkets, Akihiko returned them to the kind-faced woman who gladly received them with a delighted smile. "I think that's all of them. Is everything okay, Oba-san?" he asked, seeing the lady nod with a light chuckle that reminded Akihiko of ringing bell.

"Yes, yes. You did well. My little friends here say their thank you," she answered with a curl of her lips, squinting her narrow eyes.

"No problem," added Akihiko, noticing one of the lady's left pupil was lighter than the right. "I'll be on my way now. Take care, Oba-san." He bowed to excuse himself, but the woman suddenly tugged back his shirt, catching him completely off-guard.

"Halt!" she exclaimed while Akihiko paused mid-step. "I wasn't finished. Here, have something as a little token of thanks."

A grinning stuffed cat with stitched whiskers was placed on Akihiko's open palm, tail curled at its side with a yellow collar and a toy bell meticulously sewn around the neck. "Well…" he began, unsure of what to do with a cute plush that was more commonly found attached to women's belongings or bags carried by high school girls.

"Now, now, I won't take no for an answer," said the lady vendor, hiding her hands behind her back, sealing her offer to the considerate random stranger in the late hours of the night. "Go on, it's _fine!_ Blessings come in trickles when you least expect it. And when they pour from the heavens, just open your hand, dearie. Have as many little joys in life that make your days more meaningful, no matter how simple they may be." 

"...Thank you," Akihiko acquiesced, bowing again and this time in gratitude. When the lady finally waved to dismiss him from her grasp, Akihiko had an odd spring in his step as he headed to his favorite shopping mart that was closing in less than an hour that evening. Leisurely filling his basket with items one after another, the store music played a nostalgic '90s song that reminded him of his childhood, humming the lyrics in his head as he cashed out with a sweet sum that felt he had magnificently hit a homerun score.


	2. Chapter 2

Day 1

Akihiko  
  


_Ring…_

Akihiko craned his neck as the Call icon showed the number he had dialed connecting to the lucky receiver of his untimely inconvenience. Tail swishing anxiously at his back, he leaned down and pressed the loudspeaker button with his nose and waited impatiently for a familiar voice to come through on the other end of the call.

_Ring…_

This wasn't real, was it? This wasn't real, or is it? Akihiko stared at the white paws touching the screen of his phone laid on his ruffled bed and the reflection of two button-round pupils staring back at him, including two pointy ears, jutting whiskers, and a sheer abundance of creamy white fur to flawlessly complete his non-human ensemble. _Please pick up_ , he said—or rather, he mewled, vocal cords making noises he didn't even know existed and not a single one of them sounded close to his own voice or any semblance to human language on that matter.

_Ring…_

"Hello?" Haruki greeted from the phone speaker, triggering Akihiko's eyes to nearly burst into happy tears. "Hey, morning. What's up?"

"NYAAN," he wailed to the speaker, which roughly translated to 'HELP. CAN YOU COME OVER? SOMETHING IS WRONG! SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG.'

"Nn? Akihiko? Are you there?"

"Mrrrr?"

"Uh… Is this a mistake?"

 _No!_ he cried. _It's ME! IT'S ME!!_ Akihiko rolled around the sheets in hissing frustration until he reached the edge of his mattress and fell off his bed, sharp claws dragging the rest of his bed covers in a cascade of fabric along with his unsuspecting phone. 

"This is weird of you. Are you really calling? Or… Ah, maybe I'll just hang up…"

"NYAAAAAN!" Akihiko wailed more desperately, swimming in the mound of his comforter and hurriedly nudging his phone along the tatami mats with his paw. Reaching past the bedroom doorway to his living area and small kitchen, he prayed with all his might Haruki won't press the End button just yet, knocking over his pile of magazines stacked as his humble drumkit and his drumsticks rattled off to a corner near his sofa.

When Haruki squeaked in surprise, Akihiko's ears pricked up alert, struck with a eureka moment to persuade the man to arrive at his doorstep that morning and settle this ludicrous farce of his existence once and for all… even if it meant resorting to drastic measures.

Thud. Crack. Splash.

"What was that? What's going on?!"

Order and cleanliness thrown to the wind, Akihiko swiped off his empty ashtray from his low table with a swing of his arm, along with a few empty drink cans he had forgotten to throw away the previous night. Old lukewarm beer spilled over his comic magazines that he had only bothered to read once when they were purchased. He climbed up his low shelf of CDs and DVDs, pulled them off their respective places, leaving them to clatter on the floor. His metronome was there too and he kicked it without much thought.

In the kitchen, he slipped open a cabinet with his paws and pulled out all his disposable wares and plastic cups. Near the dish rack, he swatted off his pots and pans from their hooks and they landed on the wooden floor with a resounding crash. Spoons and chopsticks clattered, tins of favorite spices tumbled off the counter. If Haruki would think the call was a harmless prank, Akihiko needed to make his predicament sound urgent, grabbing anything that would make noise—anything and everything that would make himself heard and understood.

"Akihiko?! Are you okay?! Do you need help?!" said Haruki worriedly, voice bleating from the living area near Akihiko's sofa and was only answered by deafening silence. "Ahhhh, fine, fine! I'm coming over! Whatever is happening over there, stay put! Don't do anything dangerous or unnecessary, okay??" And with that, he ended the call.

Ah, music to Akihiko's furry ears! Trust Haruki's magically attuned senses to know what he had in mind even through a simple phone call, always saving his ass from whatever monkey wrench the gods threw to tip his life out of balance. Haruki deciphered his message! Haruki was on his way now to his place! Haruki was going to help him set things right from this baffling mess and Akihiko preened to himself having such a gracious partner and rescue him from all this sudden incongruous absurdity.

Perched on his kitchen counter, Akihiko yawned and squinted his eyes close for a nap after a tiring feat of turning his apartment into a splendid ruin, waiting for the sound of Haruki's spare key slotting into the lock, opening the door and entering the room with his golden-haired glory and even golden smile. His boyfriend would call out his name with his honey-sweet voice and Akihiko would come rushing into the man's open arms, break the curse and the two of them would live happily ever after!

Cherry blossom petals and autumn leaves sprinkled theatrically over his ghastly unpresentable apartment, but _still_ … happily ever after!  
  


***  
  


"You! Naughty! Kitty!" scolded Haruki as soon as he entered the room, hands on his hips in disdain when he spotted Akihiko lazed on the kitchen counter. "How _dare_ you trash Akihiko's place! How dare you! Look at all this! You even destroyed his drum set! He practices with that everyday, you know! And _how_ did you get in here, hm?" 

_Help?_ Akihiko meowed to the man giving him an earful, head tucked low as he dodged Haruki's tirade of accusations he could neither deny nor refute.

_It's me, don't you recognize me at all? I know I made a mess but..._

"Oh, now you're talking back at me?" Haruki stared daggers at him, stacking back the magazines scattered on the floor and picking up the forgotten drumsticks near the sofa. He set them down beside the toppled metronome and set that up-right as well. "These things are precious to him. They're _not toys_ , but obviously you wouldn't know." 

Entering the kitchen, Haruki frowned at the scene of disarray laid before him and Akihiko noticed the uneasy swallow in the man's throat as he crouched down to collect the pile of utensils left on the floor. One by one, Haruki gathered the items Akihiko had mindlessly thrown to their doom earlier, returning things in their proper places that weren't even his own.

"This is his caffeine stash and they go _here_ ," he said sternly to Akihiko, setting down the jars of tea and ground coffee beans on one side of the counter with a sure pat of his hand. "And this is his favorite soup bowl, understand? It a bit dull but he uses it a lot. I think it's the little squirrel at the side, see? I told him once it looks like him."

_Why does he know that?_

"And on _this side_ …" Haruki made his way to the emptied music shelf, stuffing back the CDs carefully where they belonged without even scrutinizing the albums and artists Akihiko listened to. "These are essential to his rehearsals, okay? You do _not_ mess with these things at all."

He then picked up a random plush toy cat he also found near the bottom of the shelf. "And this? I don't know what this is. Probably a little thing he won at the arcade or something," he reckoned, setting it beside the stack of DVDs and leaving it there unharmed. 

"Now speaking of the squirrel, where is he?" Haruki fished out his phone from his pocket and dialed Akihiko's number. Two seconds later, a familiar ring tone blared from underneath the low table and Haruki froze, realizing his boyfriend's absence in the apartment with an important item left behind.

_Haruki, I'm right here._

"Huh. That's… That's weird? I wonder where he went?" Haruki inferred a tad nervously, brows furrowing again as he claimed the phone and set it on the dining table. "Where did he go?" He looked at Akihiko staring back at him with slit pupils observing his every move.

"Did he take you in last night? Is that it?"

Akihiko meowed at him that meant a firm 'No.'

"And he went out to class already? Maybe you're his neighbor's pet, and they asked him to babysit you all of a sudden and he went out to get some stuff for you? You're a strangely deft cat though, ending up dialing my number… "

 _Wrong again,_ Akihiko replied, alighting from the counter. He jumped up to one of the dining chairs and climbed up the table all by himself while Haruki curiously watched him paw at his own phone. After a press of the home button with his nose, he typed his passcode and dialed Haruki's number, waited for the person's gadget to vibrate, and sat on top of his phone like a blinking road marker. 

"…Eh?" Haruki's eyes went wide as saucer plates. "EH?" he repeated. "…A-Akihiko?"

"Nyaaaan," he answered and saw his boyfriend's face turn a deathly pallor.

_Please, please don't freak out. Please don't faint. I know this is weird for both of us, but you're the only one I have right now._

Haruki neither screamed nor turned the apartment upside-down in anger and put back the mess he found when he entered the room ten minutes ago; not once did he laugh or wave off the strange coincidence of a white cat with green eyes gazing at him as though they had already known each other over seasons and a few years. The speechless man simply slumped to his knees with a hand clapped to his mouth, and Akihiko was unsure whether his boyfriend was going to sob or throw up an imaginary hairball as he controlled his breaths.

Light and nimble on his padded feet, he descended from the table and rubbed his side against the man's leg, waiting for Haruki's fled senses to circle back to him as the metronome on his shelf swung in precise beats back and forth. Dream or no dream, divine punishment by mistake or not, Akihiko was only certain of one thing as he gently nuzzled his cheek against Haruki's knee: they had a strange week ahead of them for sure.  
  


***  
  


Day 2

Haruki  
  


"Ohhh," said Mafuyu, mouth agape with shimmering eyes.

"Hnggh," said Ritsuka, words eaten before they were uttered.

"Mew," said Akihiko, wary of gravity in Ritsuka's hands held up to the ceiling by his armpits and beheld as a majestic Simba under the lights of Haruki's living room.

"K-Kaji… san?" Ritsuka tried again and the white shorthaired cat intoned shyly at him to confirm his question, swaying it's long tail side to side that probably meant the animal was subtly uneasy. "I… I… I can't do this. I can't do this, Haruki-san. This is cruel! Plain cruel! Why would the universe turn Kaji-san into a cat, of all people??"

"I know it's a lot to take in, but…" Haruki selected his words carefully, trying not lose his marbles himself. Ritsuka's usual composed demeanor was scraped off by pure befuddlement while Mafuyu sat quietly on the floor unruffled by the mystifying fact their bandmate had turned into a four-legged animal overnight. "Actually, know what? Go ahead," he added, already running out of straws to firmly grasp his reality. "I don't even know how to react anymore."

"What could have happened at that time?" Mafuyu pondered as Ritsuka sat beside him and settled Akihiko gently on the floor, their guitars left idle in their bags as soon as Haruki summoned them to his apartment that late afternoon and introduced to them an adult white cat lounging on his sofa. 

"Maybe Kaji-san ate something?" guessed Ritsuka, watching Akihiko lick his paw while Mafuyu stroked the cat's plush coat.

"No way, no way. We had the same dinner the night before and I'm still like _this_ ," Haruki explained, hands on his chest to emphasize his point.

"Or he was visited by a spirit that night. A spirit that lives in Kaji-san's building and they want him to leave or something similar," Mafuyu surmised, earning nervous looks from his two bandmates. "When I was small, I got lost inside this apartment complex while playing hide and seek with my friends. I was hiding in the garden area and heard one of them say 'Come out now!' so I started looking for him. But it was weird, somehow I couldn't leave the garden after that. No matter how many corners around the building I went to, I kept ending up in the same place. Then there was a shadow of a kid and I noticed he had no feet—"

"OKAY, PAUSE." Ritsuka held up a hand to Mafuyu, face colored ghostly white. "M-Maybe it's not _that_ kind of story…"

"Agreed! Agreed!" Haruki added hurriedly, also with a similar complexion and a hand clutching at his heart. "Aaaah, what's more urgent though is how to turn him back and I have no idea where to begin. He can't even talk human and his meows could practically mean anything!"

Akihiko stretched his limbs, contentedly purring by Mafuyu's touch; Haruki wasn't even sure if the cat was even aware of his three bandmates cracking their brains over solving this mystery the gods suddenly plopped unto their laps. 

"Um… If Kaji-san was able to dial Haruki-san's number, we can presume he can read," said Mafuyu, reaching for his bag to pull out a notebook and a pencil and started scribbling on a clean sheet of paper.

"What is that?" Ritsuka arched a brow, leaning over his schoolmate's shoulder reading the hiragana characters being listed in neat handwriting. "Oh, wait. I think I know where this is going."

"Here. Let's try this?" Mafuyu laid the sheet of Japanese characters on the floor and Akihiko briefly studied them with his fat almond eyes. "Kaji-san, what's Haruki-san's last name?"

Letter by letter, the three boys followed the cat's paw as he patted the letters Na, Ka, Ya, Ma on the sheet of paper and Haruki wanted to faint, knowing it was really Akihiko stuck in that small fragile body wrapped in fur with a long tail, his boyfriend's familiar stature long gone and not a single word from him aside from loud purrs and meows.

 _What happened to you?_ He wanted to ask him on the spot, worry and fear swirling in his head. _What happened the other night and how can we turn you back to your human self?_

_What can I do?_

_What can I do to get you out of this mess?_

"Akihiko…" he began, suppressing the lump in his throat. "Any ideas?"

The cat pawed the Y for Yes on the paper, looked at Haruki, and assured him with a meow.

"He said yes? He said yes," Ritsuka gasped, eyes brimming with newfound hope while Mafuyu quietly smiled as the cat continued to spell more words on the floor with his paw.

"Ne, Ko, Ma, Ta, Cho?" Haruki strung the letters together, recalling where Akihiko was headed the night he last saw him in his normal human form. "Ah! The one in Haramachida."

"Should we go visit?" asked Mafuyu, answered with a Y and a meow by the cat he called Kaji-san. "It's only seven, it might be pretty crowded at this hour but…"

"But nothing," Ritsuka intervened, rising to his feet with a faraway look in his eyes. "As long as we get Kaji-san back to normal, it's worth the trouble."

"U-Uecchi, I'm turning blind," cried Haruki, shielding his eyes from his younger bandmate's dazzling chivalry. All the while contented on the floor, Mafuyu fondly massaged Akihiko's soft belly being generously rewarded with low soothing purrs.  
  


***  
  


Chin resting on his hand, Haruki gazed blearily at his computer screen as he reviewed his video footage for the millionth time, checking and re-checking the audio track to match certain scenes in his film project until he read 23:15 displayed on his taskbar. 

Sighing away the dwindling hours he had left for a decent amount of sleep, he pressed Ctrl, S, and hit Enter on his keyboard on autopilot, removed his eyeglasses and placed them on his work table.

"Mrow?"

Haruki looked down at his leg and saw Akihiko staring up at him with gemstone irises that reminded him of a verdant spring.

"You still up, huh?" He smiled tiredly at him and gently patted his boyfriend's head. "Get some rest. You heard the nice lady, right? You shouldn't be as troubled now. The curse isn't permanent. Soon you'll wake up back to your normal self and that’s… great! That's great, isn't it?" He cooed at his furry friend rubbing against his calf back and forth, serpentine tail caressing his loose jersey pants, almost ticklish to his own surprise.

Current time swept under the rug, chilled energy drinks forgotten in his fridge, Haruki barely minded his fogged head as he ran his fingers along Akihiko's silken coat in the calm silence of his apartment space. _Too_ silent, he thought; strangely peaceful hearing himself talk aloud with no other human to answer him even when Akihiko was also there in the same room. 

"I can hear your purrs. It's seriously too cute," he said, wondering if Akihiko needed something hence the tiny meow, and he was none the wiser to pick up on the cat's body language and might actually be a bad caretaker of his harmless four-legged… well, _boyfriend_ , to be exact.

_No, two-legged._ Haruki shook his head, waking himself up and setting his mind straight. Akihiko was still the same person he knew over the past few years only in a different form at the moment. He was the same music student who majored in playing the classical violin and spent his other hours rocking the drums in a band. Smooth and refined during the day, loud and rambunctious by night. Either genre preferred over the other, Akihiko was a connoisseur of music in his own way that Haruki appreciated more than he could express in words. And spending the following days without hearing the man's voice even once, Haruki wondered if the universe was teaching him a lesson that he couldn't pin down as of yet. 

"Ahh, if I pet you too long, this project is gonna get in trouble later on. I'll be done soon, okay? Now go on, that's it, that's a good kitty…" Haruki coaxed his roommate with a light chuckle, letting the cat retreat to his room without a sound and rubbed the sides of his forehead.

Akihiko will be okay, he told himself, recalling what the lady vendor said a while ago when they visited the shopping district of Nekomata-cho. Akihiko will be back to normal soon enough and he only had to forget counting the hours to make waiting less agonizing than it already was, spending his night as he normally would and getting more pending work done.

_Ping!_

Haruki's phone called out to him with a message from his upperclassman on LINE.

'Hey, Nakayama. Just need to confirm for the gig next Sat. Sorry it's late. You can let me know tomorrow any time.'

"Meooow," Akihiko also chimed in, suddenly found at Haruki's feet with a ball of yarn and his wormy tail hooking back and forth.

"What the? How did you ninja over there?" said Haruki, putting down his phone to reach down and scratch Akihiko's chin. "We already played a while ago though. Aren’t you tired yet?"

'Yes,' he nearly replied to his senpai then the truth dawned on him like a wall of bricks crashing on top of him. 'No,' he typed in the message box, erased it, and set down his phone on the table.

 _"The live next week… What do we do if Kaji-san hasn't turned back by then?"_ Mafuyu had asked earlier.

Dread was written all over Ritsuka's face and Haruki knew the reality of their predicament hurt more than it should. _"Well, we'd have to look for a substitute fast,"_ he offered, gazing at his human reflection on the glass table. _"But that's why we want to solve this mystery first as soon as we can, right?"_

 _"But this close to the event itself?"_ Mafuyu asked. 

_"Yeah, it happens sometimes,"_ said Ritsuka, sullenness laced in his tone. _"Some of my previous bandmates were asked too. They study the audio and practice it themselves in a week or two, then they just polish the rest with the actual band three or four rounds and they're good to go by D-Day."_

 _"Then… Haruki-san, are we..?"_ Mafuyu trailed off, unspoken words the rest of the members thoroughly heard. 

_"It's not uncommon and hey, I've also played with other bands before, right? Ah, but that was solely my choice. This time, it's our group lacking a part and everyone's also here. To be fair, no problems with this for everyone?"_ asked Haruki, reading the nods of his bandmates. _"Akihiko, you good about this? Show me a hand…"_

A cat paw slowly raised to give the bandleader a high-five, small and unwavering as a flicker of candlelight that none of the other boys could snuff out. Curtains swayed in the somnolent evening breeze as Mafuyu and Ritsuka averted his gaze, and Haruki heard a tiny crack he was certain didn't come from his own heart.

"Meow?" Akihiko appeared again in the same place, this time laying a small bag of chips at Haruki's feet with an attentive tilt of his head.

"We already ate earlier, remember?" Haruki said, picking up the snack and setting it aside on his work table. "You're being silly now. Do you want some company in the room? I'll be done with this soon, I promise."

Magic words spoken or none, Akihiko climbed onto his lap in one easy leap before Haruki could resume his project. He nuzzled the man's stomach, rolled and twisted into pretzel shapes with his limbs until he found a cozy position, relaxing with his face pressed against Haruki's shirt purring as loud as a humming car engine.

"Aaaaaaaaahhh, this is too indulgent." Haruki stroked Akihiko's back, fingers gliding smoothly over the cat's velvety fur. "Am I not being myself lately? Do you think I'm slowly losing it? You look really comfy over there, I'm a little jealous."

_Maybe I need a good wake-up call to get my head on straight and look after you more properly, huh?_

Haruki placed a kiss on the cat's head and eyed his phone waiting patiently for him on the table. 22:30 read on his homescreen and his reply to his upperclassman wasn’t to going to type itself; not tonight or even tomorrow, and Haruki needed to arrive at a decision sooner than later whether he wanted it or not. 

'Good evening, Senpai. Is it all right to confirm by Thursday?' he typed on his phone and hit Send.

'Sure but not later than that. If you need anything from your side, feel free to let me know.'

'Thank you! Will update again soon,' he replied promptly, sighing as he shook his head, groaning away all his deadlines and miscellaneous quandaries turning them into gibberish noises more similar to a feral animal than a behaved human being.

_Then why did I ask in the first place?!_


	3. Chapter 3

Day 4

Akihiko  
  


_'What happened to them?'_ Haruki asked two nights ago at Nekomata-cho, canvas bag on his shoulder with a certain furry Akihiko poking his head out the top flap. _'What happened to them when they became a caaaaa… I-I mean, another creature? Did they turn back? How soon?'_

The lady vendor's eyes narrowed mischievously at Akihiko as she hid a smile behind her fan. _'Oh, only for some days. From what I hear, they found their charms weren't taken care of and the next day poof! They're human again, simple as that.'_

Quietly roosted on the armrest of the sofa, Akihiko skimmed through his imaginary Cat Life Diary while torrential rain pattered against the glass sliding door in Haruki's apartment. Sloped streets in Machida turned into shallow water pools as classes carried on in the lecture halls at their university, umbrellas and rain boots became the inevitable de rigueur for students that afternoon. By timely happenstance and to a certain cat's hooked tail glee, Haruki's professor rang in absent with no other duties slated on his schedule, piling more indoor time for the film student and indulging the company of one lone furry roommate named Akihiko.

_'Simple as that,' she said. 'Only for some days,' she said._

Sitting in his preferred guardian spot at the edge of the furniture, the cat chewed on his ponderings keen to pull out a magic fishbone hidden in the friendly lady vendor's words. Akihiko was now on his fourth noon as a domesticated pet with a gig approaching Judgement Day by each passing hour. Remaining a cat any longer was certain to lead a substitute member for Given next week, which shouldn't be a big deal as far as his conscience knew… or not.

Having a temporary replacement should be no problem, right? A-Okay, green lights, gameshow winning buzzer and all.

Yet there was also his dream last night.

Akihiko's skin crawled with goosebumps and suddenly fell off his perch as a streak of lightning illuminated the blue-gray skies, ushered by a vicious crash and boom that nearly caused a heart attack and delivered his soul straight to animal heaven. Adrenaline knob turned on high, his blood was a distraught fusion of fire and ice as he sought immediate shelter, but most of all he instinctively needed to _protect_ the one thing he couldn't live without in his world—the sun to his days, the flowers to his spring, the bass to his drums that no other could ever replace…

 _Danger! Danger! Where is my human? Where is my human?! I need to find my human whereishe??_ He ran in dizzying circles around the living area and kitchen, feet refusing to stop until he found his seemingly missing Haruki.

The kitchen was empty, same as the genkan and the corridor. Playing hide-and-seek they were not and Akihiko rushed to the bedroom with the sliding panel left ajar, jumped on the bed but found no human company under the covers. The storm continued to pour, rattling the apartment roof with raindrops the size of a 5-yen coin, spraying water against the balcony sliding door in hisses twice as loud in Akihiko's sensitive ears.

"Haaaaahhh, this scent is the beeeesst…"

Haruki's voice echoed from a slit of white light at the corner of Akihiko's eye and he immediately pawed at the bathing room door and stuck his head inside the quiet fragrant space.

"What dinner should I make later?" Haruki mused dreamily, head rested against the tiled wall with his body shoulder-deep in a tub filled with steaming water. "Then I have the rest of the hours to finish the last bits of my work and that's all there is… I'm done… I am _so_ done… Maybe I can sleep before midnight tonight, I think I want to celebrate…"

 _Haruki, you okay?_ Akihiko poked his head up the side of the tub with a worried meow.

"HYAAAAAA!!"

Scented bathwater marvelously splashed in Akihiko's face before he could duck from getting wet, falling off the edge of the tub in a puddle of clumped fur and dripping whiskers smelling of lavender while apologies and panicked noises spilled from Haruki's mouth.

" _Don't do that_ , okay? Even if you're a cat, it's no excuse," Haruki lectured him a few minutes later, both in front of the bathroom mirror, swiveling the hair blower over Akihiko's damp fur with a crease between his brows. "Yes, that's you in the reflection. Are you surprised?"

Akihiko's pupils dilated under the bright lights of the bathroom and squinted his eyes closed, waiting for his fur to be dried back to shining perfection as he sat moping on the sink without a single happy raise of his tail. 

_He rejected me_.  
  


***  
  


Thunder rumbled in the distance as the wall clock read 19:30. Stretched to a white furry log on his back with arms(?) raised above his head, Akihiko ravenously moaned in aroused delight as a pair of human hands slowly caressed up and down his body.

 _AAAAAAHHHHHHH,_ he gushed starving of human touch, melting into honey-sweet kitty bliss as Haruki continued massaging his torso in broad generous strokes of his long callused fingers. _AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH. YES, RIGHT THERE. KEEP GOING. MORE PLEASE, MORE. PLEASE DON'T STOP EVER._

"…Can you believe it? Six hours! The meeting lasted for _six hours_ with those clients I thought my eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets with all the details we had to negotiate with them back and forth, and back and forth. They were really nice though and footed the bill, they were just so excited about making the film as perfect as they visualized it and I almost ran out of paper in my notebook, drawing camera angles and showing them how certain equipment worked… Aaaah, I'm not boring you, am I? Sorry, that meeting haunts me up to this day and Take-chan teases me with other stories he's had at his workplace and says that's only the tip of the iceberg…"

Haruki's phone pinged with a new notification and Akihiko groaned when his boyfriend's hands paused to reach for the phone on the low table. 

"Oh. Uecchi. He's asking how you're doing," said Haruki, showing his phone screen to the cat luxuriously sprawled on the floor. "Such a goo'poy he is, huh?"

One shutter click and a chuckle later, Haruki sent the photo to their concerned guitarist with a wide grin and Akihiko couldn't help but lick his own lips. Four grueling days were longer than six hours, each move of the minute hand ticking away the days left until their band's long-awaited performance. Rolling on his stomach, Akihiko noticed the dull glint in Haruki's eyes and the tired line of his mouth that curled upward to a smile. Even with a laugh, the bassist also knew the cute photo of a white cat was also a piece of bittersweet news to their bandmate hoping he'd see a picture of an Akihiko in his human form instead.

Waiting for Ritsuka's reply, Haruki ran a hand through his newly-washed hair that smelled of dewy oranges and aloe, slipping out a sigh between his lips careful not to extinguish the candlelight of hope he held for everyone in his band.

"We still have tomorrow, yeah?" The usually optimistic leader tried an encouraging tone but Akihiko heard the strain in his voice. "And even if… _you know_ , nothing happens, the curse is still the same and you'd be back to normal soon. By next week or so, you'd be back walking on your two legs again! And that's the more important bit, right? As long as you change back. We'll wait for you no matter what, Akihiko. Even Mafuyu-chan and Ue said it clearly the other night. I'll wait for you. Take one day at a time…"

Time read 19:40 and another clap of thunder droned outside, raindrops cascaded along the glass of the balcony sliding door as Akihiko rubbed his side against Haruki's knee. He didn't know why but it felt right; it felt urgent and necessary to drape himself all over Haruki, invade the man's personal space without scruples and unconditionally share his warmth. 

"If things don't turn out what we hoped for, no use throwing a tantrum over it, you know? Yeah, and if things go the other way, I'll… I'll rehearse that new part we made with the sub. Ideally, this weekend if they have the time and a few rounds with Mafuyu-chan and Ue," said Haruki, arranging his schedule in his head. "It's okay with you, right? You're not angry?"

Akihiko purred in reply, climbing up Haruki's lap and nuzzling the man's shoulder. _Why would you think that?_ he said, inhaling fresh citrus shampoo and a cozy redolence of warm blankets on cold mornings that delicately spelled his boyfriend's name.

_Haruki, I'm not mad. Never think I'd get mad at you for doing what you should for the band, keeping everyone together, including me in this stupid trouble I got myself into._

Gently stroking the cat's back shoulders-to-tail, Haruki read Ritsuka's reply on his phone: 'Oh. Kaji-san looks long even as a cat,' the boy said, followed by supportive comments by their pet-friendly vocalist Mafuyu. 

'Tomorrow is another day, I suppose,' the guitarist followed, audible sadness lingering in between the letters.

Refusing rain to dampen the rest of Given's hopes, Haruki typed some reassuring words to his two bandmates and an easy 'Goodnight', put away his phone and carefully wrapped his arms around Akihiko's small form. 

"It'll be okay, nothing's over yet. It will be okay…" said the bassist. "It's not like you're leaving or anything, just a temporary fix for what we have. Well, if things don't turn up soon that is, but look! There's still plenty of time, see? Still some hours before midnight and my classes tomorrow…" He trailed off on his thoughts as Akihiko purred at the crook of his neck, staring blankly at his walls as though expecting them to talk back. 

Clouds brewing thunder and lightning slowly passed over the black skies, thick sheets of rain pouring over Machida had now thinned to a moderate shower. Dwelling in a serendipitous haven in Haruki's arms, Akihiko heard every uneasy breath and subtle tremble in the man's voice, the low pulse of a worried heartbeat in Haruki's chest, every anxious swallow of the bandleader's throat despite the uplifting words that formed on his tongue.

 _I know you're holding back,_ said Akihiko, helpless to his own mouth that could only hold a soft meow. _You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but know I'm right here. You know I can understand you. I'm not going anywhere. I'll stay with you all night and wait for you too._

"Is this nice, hm?" asked Haruki, snuggling Akihiko and playfully squeezing the cat's front paws. "You know, you're easier to hug now when you're this size. Also easier to sleep when we share a bed. No fighting over the covers or someone falling off the mattress."

"Mew," replied Akihiko, which meant 'Same here, I like sleeping with you too,' but of course, his boyfriend was oblivious of his answer.

"But even so, as nice as this is, I'm also missing that that big bulky stature of yours a tiiiiiny bit?" added Haruki, smiling shyly with a light rosy tint on his cheeks.

"You're always so easy to spot in a crowd walking with those long legs and head of light-shaded hair. Then kids see your piercings, either they go wide-eyed scared or have this face like 'Ohhh, look at him, that guy seems cool!' and you're just one big dork not noticing anything at all. You have these sturdy shoulders and carry heavy things around without a sweat… then Ue would try it himself but struggle with it, and Mafuyu-chan would just stand there and cheer him on…" He tried a light chuckle, but Akihiko didn't miss the slight quiver in his voice.

"I bet you also miss riding your motorbike and practicing your violin. Explore new food places near our campus and visit them together. When you turn back to your human self, I can hear your voice again too, right? You can talk again with your lame jokes and teases… I can talk to you… and not have plain silence as an answer…"

Akihiko looked up at Haruki's face, finding glazed amber eyes blinking back a few tears.

"And when I say I love you… " The man tried to continue but bit his lip instead, incomplete sentence finished with a long wailing mewl. "Sorry. I'm sorry... I didn't meant to make them sound harsh for you. What was I thinking??" 

Heart slowly chipping away, Akihiko strained his tiny vocal cords to answer but only incoherent noises fled from his mouth. He meowed and meowed, human words lost in translation lodged in his throat, filling the room with his loud cries as Haruki swallowed a quiet whimper.

Was he warm enough? Akihiko wondered, nuzzling Haruki's cheek as he purred. Even in his light fragile body, was he enough to keep Haruki warm on a cold night? Could his wee helpless form do anything to ease the tremble in Haruki's voice, to be less of a burden to the person he loved for the millionth time?

Has he ever been any less of a leech in other people's homes, being spoiled rotten by a man who never asks for anything in return?

Has Kaji Akihiko ever learned his lessons thoroughly or was he still back to where he started, far from the finish line? 

Did he even progress into anything slightly better as a person at all?

He meowed and he meowed, pawing and licking Haruki's face, feline eyes of lush green itching to cry but had no idea how. Thin and brittle like a slowly shattering mirror, his chest hurt a thousand-fold as Haruki ate his own sobs while stroking Akihiko's back, letting a few tears roll down his cheeks without saying a single word.

If Haruki would ask him to hold a piece of his heart in his hands, Akihiko was certain he'd drop it on the floor, clumsy and absent-minded as he was with his kitty paws mostly used for catching useless things. And yet kind as Haruki was with his resilient spirit, the man would simply tell him to try again with a humble smile, unaware of the halo floating above his own head.

 _You're not crying for yourself, aren't you?_ Akihiko asked. _Do you easily see it on my face? Hear the ugly things inside my head even if I hide them from everyone else? They're terrible, aren't they? Ruthless and vile, and I can't despise myself enough for letting them hurt you too…_

"Akihiko, I'll wait," said Haruki, hugging the cat tightly in his arms. "I'll always wait for you, no matter how long it takes. Start small, count one day at a time. When you feel angry at yourself, remember you didn't mean for this to happen; we all make certain mistakes. If you assume you're taking up too much space, think again, Akihiko. Know that with you, I also have a home. You're coming back from this, I know you will. Even being this small, you're far from lame or being unaccepted, unheard or even insignificant—to Ue and Mafuyu-chan, and especially to me."

"Mrooow," Akihiko answered as best he could, purring near Haruki's right ear and snuggling his boyfriend's neck.

_I'll come back, Haru. I'm not going to be a cat for the rest of this life. The curse will fade and I can talk to you again, hold you again, play music with you again. You can bet on that. I'm not letting you walk through this alone._

"I have absolutely no idea what you're meowing means, they could be anything but um… I miss you too? Or I could be wrong. Ahh, but we look silly right now, don't we?" added Haruki with a little laugh, wiping the corner of his eyes and a rub of his slightly sniffling nose. "Sadly, our dirty dishes won't wash by themselves, right? If a G suddenly pops up around here, we're both definitely doomed!" He planted a kiss on the cat's head, cracked a little smile, and finally put Akihiko down on the floor to rinse their nearly-forgotten dinner plates and bowls in the kitchen sink. Tempests of emotions slowly subdued to calmer drizzles as rivulets of rain slid down the glass windows, watering the seeds of comfort sowed in their chests and letting them sprout and grow, closing the curtains on the vagaries of their hearts as the pall of storm clouds over Machida cleared for the rest of the night.

Lights switched off half an hour before twelve, thick blankets ruffled and creased as Haruki settled down in his bed for the evening. After a quick boop of his boyfriend's nose, Akihiko curled up by the man's pillows right beside a charging phone. Resting his eyes for a couple of hours before his nocturnal instincts woke him up again around 3 a.m., Akihiko curled his tail around his body as he listened to the faint sound Haruki's breathing lulling himself to sleep. 

_'Simple as that,' she said. 'Only for some days,' she said._ Akihiko's still-restless brain rummaged through his earlier thoughts that day with renewed vigor as Haruki shifted in his deep slumber.

 _'They found their charms weren't taken care of…'_ the lady mentioned the other night. 

' _And this? I don't know what this is. Probably a little thing he won at the arcade or something,'_ said Haruki the day before that, holding up the cat plush charm the woman gave, green eyes and a yellow collar sewn at the neck with a bell attached to complete the piece.

_Wait, the bell…_

Akihiko's eyes slowly opened to perfect round pupils of black coffee in the dark room, realizing the certain ringing accessory was missing when Haruki found it in his apartment. Fallen off any time between that fateful night when he had returned to his place and the morning after, the bell must have rolled off without him noticing, left somewhere around his apartment or a worse thought: somewhere around the nearby streets never to be found.

_Or someone swept it away and threw it in the trash…_

Such profound exhilaration rushed through Akihiko's veins upon his long-awaited discovery. Having wrung his brain for the past few days about ending up as a four-legged pet, reduced to a creature ranked below humans like a misbegotten joke to a Franz Kafka novel, the small toy must have been the culprit of this farcical transformation of a mishap; the elusive auteur of his skewed reality while the Earth kept turning on its slightly tilted axis. But who knows where the missing bell could be at that moment, he thought. And would he even need to find it or simply wait for the magic to subside?

But found or none, Akihiko was certain his choice remained the same: Given was going to play at The Garage next week with his nod of approval even if it meant him sitting in the audience and cheering them on, standing proud of his band and without feeling left out at all.

 _'Akihiko, I'll wait. I'll wait no matter how long it takes,'_ Haruki said to him, words loyal and honest but Akihiko heard it as loud as a drop of water in a serene lake, pattering rain on the roof drowned to background radio static as he listened to his boyfriend's guiding voice.

 _It will be okay. It will be okay,_ he told himself, watching Haruki's chest rise and fall and his hair splayed in wisps of citrus-scented amber on his pillow. He yawned, wondering the current time of night, daydreaming of the day he can also sleep next to Haruki in his full human-shaped existence, offering his warmth holding the man his arms, their grown-up student facades set aside to be worn another day and their mouths pulled close resting from the stories and dilemmas they've shared, kisses and I Love You's expressed to their heart's content behind balcony curtains or closed apartment doors.

_It'll be okay, nothing is over yet._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Contains light manga spoilers but events are still kept vague.  
> \- Last edited: 06/19/20, rephrased a tiny bit in the middle paragraphs. The one before was from a wrong perspective. ＿ﾉフ○

Day 5

Haruki  
  


Side-parted locks in place with the ends tucked behind his right ear, Haruki checked his hairstyle one last time in the mirror as he closed the running bathroom faucet after thoroughly brushing his teeth. Waking up to a full eight-and-a-half hours of rest that morning, the cogs and gears in his head turned as a well-oiled machine moving around his apartment with surefooted strides in his daily routine, tip-toe quiet not disturb his sleeping roommate tucked under the warm covers on his bed.

"Akihiko, I'm off to class," he whispered to his boyfriend curled in a nest of pillows. He grabbed his phone freshly charged to 100% and shoved it into his back pocket, checked if all his miscellaneous appliances were safely unplugged, found his keys and wallet in the ceramic bowl near the corridor, and stowed them in his bag.

 _Another day, another hope._ Haruki reached for his jacket hanging on a coat peg at his genkan and slipped it on, thinking of what dinner to cook later, dismissing the inescapable brick reality was all too eager to throw at his face: today was Thursday and Akihiko was still a cat. Opening his eyes to a mound of white fur tickling his nose earlier that morning, he simply stroked Akihiko's coat and listened to his relaxing purrs, his pending reply to his senpai laid right before his groggy eyes that he neither detested nor wanted to regret. Akihiko was still a cat.

Searching his jacket pockets for his train pass, Haruki felt a round object with his fingers followed by a long-forgotten _'Ring!'._

"Huh, I forgot I had this," he uttered to himself, pulling out a marble-sized toy bell he had picked up at Akihiko's doorstep five days ago when he received that fateful phone call. Gold and shiny as his hair, he randomly found the estranged charm lying unnoticed outside, probably left by a child or had fallen off a high school girl's keychain without ever hearing its darling wind chime ring. Without much thought, Haruki kept it in his jacket even if he had no idea what use it would bring to him, merely swaying to his whims and foibles of collecting little treasures that made his heart smile on a difficult day.

Shoes parked patiently at his genkan, Haruki padded back to his living room and pulled out his small hidden box of trinkets and knickknacks, finding a thin strand of leftover gift-wrapping ribbon he had stashed over the past Christmas holiday. He threaded it carefully through the loop of the toy bell with an upward curve of his lips and tip-toed back into his bedroom where he found Akihiko's tail peeking under the covers.

Feather-light in his touch, he tied the ribbon around the slumbering cat's neck with the bell dangling right by Akihiko's chin. Haruki chuckled softly with a bite of his lip, careful not to disturb his boyfriend with unnecessary noise. After a soft 'See you later', he pulled back the blankets just as he had found it, returned to the genkan where his shoes awaited to step out the door and greet the fresh morning breeze, nothing out of the ordinary leaving a little gift for Akihiko as far as his functioning mind knew.  
  


***  
  


Choirs of cicadas sang in the keyaki trees dotted around the university campus as Haruki walked along the cobblestone path that led to his department building. Phone sitting inside his jacket pocket, the film student mulled over Ritsuka's and Mafuyu's replies more heavily than he would've liked. One gig was all it was that Akihiko would have to sit out, nothing big of a problem that could permanently injure the band.

And yet.

Why did he cry last night? Why did tears pool in his eyes hearing Akihiko's meows sound full of taciturn and pain that echoed more than his impending absence for their upcoming live next week? 

Was he looking after him well enough? Was Akihiko pleased with how he was being treated? Did his words hurt Akihiko deeper than he thought? He had never heard a cat meow so desperately as that evening and each cry was an arrow to his heart, failing to understand what the man was trying to say. All he could do was hug the white cat and keep him warm and safe as he could, letting Akihiko know these days will pass and one day—one certain day—he'll be back to his human self and march on, wheels of time held in his hands without any rush in his strides. 

Checking his watch, Haruki pulled out his phone from his pocket and began typing his reply. He was willing to wait, he told Akihiko; he was willing to wait but their gig couldn't, including his upperclassman who needed his answer no later that day.

'Senpai, hello…' Haruki began his casual greeting, fingers crunching down words that left a bitter taste on his tongue. Students walked by as he focused on his phone and right before pressing Send, his screen turned dark with a Calling icon and a name that instantly halted him in his tracks.

"He… llo…?" he greeted, expecting for another string of loud meows from the other end of the call.

"It's me… where are you?" asked Akihiko, voice low and smooth as a professionally strummed cello talking to him clear as day, almost tripping Haruki off his feet. 

Where was the floor again? Haruki's knees turned into wet sand about to be swept by the waves as he stood frozen on a campus walkway. Seconds dragged on as youths and professors headed for their afternoon classes, but Haruki was a steady ship in a sea of strangers, firmly anchored to the voice speaking on his phone.

Where was he? Where was Akihiko? And how in the world was he calling him?

Was he okay? Did Akihiko need help with anything? Was Haruki merely dreaming and none of this was happening at all?

"Front of the library," Haruki replied, nearly surprised he was even able to form a coherent answer. "…Akihiko? Is this…? I mean, are you…? Really?"

"Just stay put, I'm on my way. But don't hang up… please?"

"Oh. Yeah, sure thing. I'll wait right here. No problem," Haruki replied, struggling to keep his voice from crumbling to a tremulous mess.

"Have you told him already? Have you told Senpai?"

"No, not yet. I was about to, but you called so I answered you first." 

"Haruki, I've worried you more than I should and bothered you more than I already have for the past few days," Akihiko confided to him, each word dipped in a rich timbre Haruki could almost taste dark chocolate in his mouth. "Even if I'd still be a cat, it'd be right to find a sub. It’s only one gig and I wouldn't be angry about it all."

Haruki searched his surroundings for a patch of white-blonde hair and a familiar height he could easily pick out in a crowd but alas, he found none. Gods know where Akihiko was as he continued to talk through their call while Haruki could barely restrain his feet from sprinting across the campus, and find the man he hasn't seen in days as though they had been apart for hundreds and thousands of years.

"You, of all people, coming to practice earlier than everyone else for these past few months. I've seen how much you care for our band and it was stupid of me to think you'd be easily disheartened with a little hiccup like this," said Haruki with an ashamed laugh.

"No, you're right on every account," admitted Akihiko, filling a long silence on Haruki's end.

"I had a dream," the drummer began. "We were at The Play House and Given was on stage. I saw you, Ue, and Mafuyu, but I wasn't part of it, only watching you guys from afar. And I didn’t feel good about it, Haruki. I felt miserable in that dream, even though I said it was fine to opt me out."

"I… I didn't know," Haruki lamented, heart slowly sinking to his stomach remembering it was none other than him who asked his upperclassman to answer at a later time.

"None of that is your fault," said Akihiko gently, voice soothing as a cat purring at Haruki's ear. "It took a while for me to think about it again, trying to wrap my head around what that dream really wanted to convey. Then last night, when you said those things, I knew then it was telling me there's nothing to worry about after all. Nothing to feel bad or humiliated about, as a cat or as I am now."

"So… _that's_ why," Haruki reckoned. "That's why you sounded hurt and in pain at that time. I was completely _overwhelmed_ , Akihiko. I wanted to help you but didn't know what to do, wasn't sure what to say. There were just all these… _these waves and waves of sadness_ crashing into my chest hearing you cry so much and next thing I knew, tears were also flowing down my face and realized I was more than missing you that time."

"You're amazing like that, you know?" said Akihiko, plain and simple without much of an awkward pause.

"Haaaah?"

"Tuning to others' emotions easily. Like you have cat instincts yourself."

Warmth spreading across his face, Haruki was about to melt into a sorry-looking puddle of soup and not even an hour has passed yet after Akihiko was back to speaking normal human language again. The nerve of this sagacious man of youth and virile. Easily swept off his feet _without fail_ by this man's random sprinklings of praise, he wanted to strangle Akihiko to a drunken stupor and tell him how much of an idiot he was, then crush their lips together tasting his sweet moans and part their kiss like nothing ever happened.

"I… well, not aaaaaaall the time? And not to everyone in general? Maybe to ones I'm really close to because I… I uh… I don't know. I can't help it, they just happen before I know it. Is it weird? It's weird, isn't it?"

"Not even close," replied Akihiko with a light chuckle. "But I'm grateful for that— _always_ grateful for everything you do, even that oblivious stare of yours makes me want to keep you happy even more. Aaargh, I want to head over to Shimokita right now and rehearse for hours on end. I just… I… Oh. Haruki, you look really nice today."

Singing cicadas cued the end of their afternoon hymn as Haruki turned his head left and right, surveying around the campus buildings for the owner of the voice who had called his name. "Eh?" He scanned the nearby main building with its double doors of oak framed by a carved arch but found no Akihiko, the zen gardens surrounding the adjacent Music Department also had no familiar faces or shade of ivory-white hair.

"Over here," said Akihiko over the phone, soft as a ghostly whisper as though he was mirage about to fade.

Near the varsity fields that hid the open parking lots, Haruki found his boyfriend holding up a phone to his right ear, motorcycle gloves held in his left hand, and a gaze that could shoot an arrow across the universe and hit its's target dead-center. Akihiko ended their call and Haruki lowered his phone, palms and fingers itching to graze across Akihiko's skin. He bit his lower lip, pursed them, then bit his lower lip again, struck blank and clueless how to string a few words and form a basic sentence, realizing a cat literally got his tongue.

"Hi. Did you know cats only see in low-saturated colors?" Akihiko greeted as soon as he approached, eyes round and mirroring Haruki's dim-witted stare.

To any living human and creature on Earth, Haruki was known as the type of person who would give the shirt off his back for people he deeply cared about, whether family, friends, his fledgling band Given; he would _gladly_ help with someone's errands or do small favors before the person would even ask out of his own time and whim, never pressuring anyone to return the effort twice-fold (or with interest) or secretly keep a blacklist he would carry with him to his grave…

But there was a limit.

23-year-old Nakayama Haruki was fully aware he was leagues away from a perfect human being with his own faults and flaws, and as much space in his heart he would want to spare for the people he loved, his seemingly endless reel of kindness and generosity had an end hidden in the deeper crevices of his pumping arteries that not a lot people knew. And when a certain heedless soul would find that end and yank it off with a cold uncaring hand, Haruki wouldn't waste a darn second to be belittled and swat away that insufferable miscreant's hand, watch them fray at the sides without his help keeping their shit in place.

One such person was the man standing before him named Akihiko—with his handsome profile of a well-chiseled jawline and shapely nose, thick neck that constantly pleaded Haruki's arms to wrap around it and call his lips for a kiss even when he dreams about him at night. This same man whom he saw as a friend, a bandmate, and a previously harmless crush, never expecting his delusional fairy tales to come true, toppled all those titles away in one night as a line of falling dominoes that Haruki nearly wrote 'Kaji Akihiko' in his imaginary blacklist and threw it in a fire.

'Nearly' was the keyword.

Diving into a well of pain and self-loathing, he dipped his hand into the dark waters where he saw Akihiko in the reflection and swirled his fingers over the man's face until it became mere blobs and patches of color. Disappointment projected outward into anger, but also turned that same shiny surface into a mirror that reflected his inner wounds. A ball and chain of worthlessness and dejection fastened to his feet and Haruki slowly drowned in a cold lake perniciously anchored to a malaise festering in his heart. 

Yet one day, this same person tugged on his arm that meant more that it should—the same person whom he could have easily refused. Given the choice to shoo away Akihiko for even daring to touch his paper-thin skin; instead, Haruki heard a track of small thumps that echoed between the cracks of the man's facade that sounded begging for it to be heard. 

A few sentences were said, casual and easy from the same mouth that almost tore Haruki apart—as a friend, as a concerned bandmate, and as a simple man who heard his desperate gasps for air. Akihiko effortlessly breathed new words into Haruki's mouth when he needed it posthaste, unlocking that ball and chain from his feet and helping him swim back to the surface without fear of looking back. One small tug on his arm was all it took; one firm hold of Akihiko's rough hands around his wrist to pull him back to his senses; one simple gaze from the person who Haruki could have let go of but didn't as he realized Akihiko offered him a piece of his imperfect self without expecting anything in return.

Heart achingly stubborn, he held onto it even without him noticing, cradling the piece between his fingers like playing with a tiny nugget of gold. Days ambled by and the next thing he knew, he had dug more space in his heart for people to occupy once more, especially for the ones he loved. Nakayama Haruki had no blacklist of names to take with him to the afterlife, held no grudges or ill-sought malice on anyone; not a single drop of spite for every call of need he answers out of his own will for people he cared about since that was the type of person he was...

"Haruki?" asked Akihiko, ogling at his wordless boyfriend as he tucked away his phone and gloves. "Did you wait long? Do you have class?" 

_You… are a genuine piece of art. A genuine dull-headed piece of fabulous art!! THAT'S the first thing you're going to mention?!_ Haruki seethed, gritting his teeth before he uttered them aloud. "No," he answered. "I just finished my lecture and my next class is at three."

"You're upset." Akihiko knitted his brows. "Did I say something wrong? Say something bad?"

 _YES AND NO,_ Haruki bit his tongue, palms itching to hold his boyfriend's hand, arms held down by a mere cat whisker ready to spring and wrap around Akihiko's neck.

Not to mention those lips—those wonderful lips he wanted to kiss after hundreds of years… ahem, _five days_ , and taste Akihiko's changed heart and gentle soul once again, take in all his moans and panting breaths; to make him say his name as much he needed to remember while losing his senses, running his fingers through that bristly short-trimmed hair and feel the shared warmth in their chests. 

"You have no idea Kaji Akihiko," Haruki began, using every ounce of his will not to grab the music student's shirt. "You have no idea how stressful it was waiting for you to turn back, to finally turn back into this! Do you know much I couldn't sleep well for the past few days? I couldn't eat much, had no appetite. I was hardly thinking straight! I didn't want to sound misguided to Mafuyu-chan and Ue, but really, replying to senpai that time didn't feel right for me. I wavered a _whole mile lot_ even if we could ask for a sub drummer, and still clung to that hope you'd turn back at the right time! And, and… seeing you _now_ , all human-shaped and tall again like this, it's just… I don't know, I…"

With a careful hand, Akihiko guided Haruki's head to lean against his shoulder and patted his boyfriend's soft hair. "I love you too," he said, corner of his lips tugged up to a smile while Haruki breathed off-tune accordion noises as he fed on the scent of Akihiko's skin. "That's what I've been meowing to you last night."

"I want to punch your face so bad right now," muttered Haruki, knowing Akihiko's mouth was only a few inches away from his own lips. "Just don't get into stupid shenanigans again and turning yourself into furry animals, you hear me?? Spare my soul, please! I can handle my work even if it's a lot and know I can finish what I have to do, but when you were a cat, it was a grueling waiting game! I didn't know if I was looking after you correctly! If I was giving you enough attention, playing with you enough. I didn't know if you're scared or worried or lonely…"

"I'd give you flying colors for a cat owner, I'd give you that," replied Akihiko. "I ate well, slept well. You always made sure I wasn't bored and picked up any mess I made. To be frank, I felt spoiled rotten all those days but pampering as it was, something was missing from making me a hundred percent content. Haruki, guess why."

"I... didn't take you out on walks too often?"

Akihiko breathed a soft chuckle that made Haruki nearly sink to his poor grandpa knees. "I couldn't talk to you _for a single day_ ," he answered. "I could only meow and yowl nonsense to you, couldn’t say what I felt, couldn't even kiss you properly—that was the hardest part of everything. You could've _not_ believed me when I called you back then, but _you did_. You could've just thrown me out to fend for myself, but _you didn't_. You took me in again, gave me a place to stay, allowed me to be by your side even if I wasn't my real myself." He reached into the pocket of his biker jacket and pulled out a small toy bell and a long thin ribbon, showing them to Haruki who only stared cluelessly at them and Akihiko shook his head endearingly.

"Oh. That? I found that near your doorstep outside and picked it up. I thought it was cute and thought nobody wanted it so I took it!"

Tying the ribbon around his boyfriend's wrist, Akihiko sighed with a fond smile while Haruki only watched, rosy pink tint dabbed all over his face. "Seriously, you keep saving me more times than I can count." 

"You sure about that?" Haruki asked, hearing the sweet ring of the little bell. "If not for Mafuyu-chan's idea, I wouldn't have figured out where to look for answers about your cat charm, remember? Akihiko, sometimes I get a little fog-headed too and things get a bit rough. I can also get carried away with the thoughts or worries brewing in my head, and I need something or _someone_ to help snap me out of it, to realize I'm looking at molehill and not a mountain I can't climb over."

"That's why you always hang out with Take-san, right?" Akihiko assumed, but this time it was Haruki who sighed and shook his head with a smile.

"Why did you think I rushed to your apartment even though I had no idea what was going on? Why do you think I hesitated to hang up when you started making all those noises?" Haruki asked, fingers aching to trace Akihiko's jawline and glide his thumb across the man's chin.

"Even if I say nothing about having a busy day or getting overwhelmed with work, I've never needed to wail or shout to make you hear me, did you know that? When you started messing up your apartment, I heard a bit of my inner myself clamoring in my head. Then I thought about you—how you still know somehow know when to randomly pop up in my day, saying random Thank You's and compliments. If you think I'm always the one saving you, have you once thought you're also capable of doing the same for me?"

Pale skinned as Akihiko was, the faintest blush on his cheeks was adorable smears of red on his face and ears that sent bubbles of laughter in Haruki's throat. "Well, you… uh, you've shared to me a lot over the past days, except for _that,"_ said the bashful music student. "But I've always wanted to, Haruki, and I always will—as long you allow me. No matter how messy it gets in your head, I won't let you clean up everything by yourself unless you tell me to. We'll pick up the fallen things from the shelves and put them back in their proper places, tidy up until everything is sorted out and can be called your safe place again— _your_ home, that apartment in your head, where you can welcome people as often as you'd like when they come ringing at your door."

"Yo, Nakayama. Have you seen Yatake?" said the voice of another graduate student from the Film Department, blinking curiously at the two students with matching red cheeks.

"A-Ahhh, Senpai! Hi! I mean, good day! He's at work today but will be out by five," Haruki greeted almost flailing in surprise. "I was about to message you on LINE about next week."

"Oh yeah. You good to go?"

Haruki gave him an OK hand signal with a ring of the bell on his wrist. "All game," he answered with a wide awkward grin. "Sorry for the wait."

"Cute bracelet," commented his upperclassman, then winked at Akihiko before waving casually and slipped away around the corner of the library. "It'll be a full house so give them a show!"

"He seems nice," said Akihiko with a beady-eyed squirrel stare.

Debating whether to run for the hills or throw himself all over his boyfriend, Haruki hid his tomato-red face and groaned into his palms, popping sheet after sheet of bubble wrap with his ever-so-loving hands in his head.

_Sometimes, I really do want to punch your face._


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- There's one detail I forgot about Haruki's hair length while writing the first part of this but already grew attached to the scene and kept it as is. :’D  
> \- Contains one extra made-up name.

Day 10

Akihiko  
  


With plenty of spare minutes before the hour struck ten, the evening tableau inside The Garage live house was teeming with youths and adults alike, flailing over the performances with friends or band members rubbing shoulders with fellow musicians and exchanging friendly high-fives. Some chatted by the standing bar tables with their beer glasses in hand while others took pictures around the venue as souvenirs of the successful gig. The adults stayed, the younger ones politely excused themselves to head home with hearts stout with music; guests entered and exited the front doors of The Garage as late-night trains could be seen in the distance, rattling along its tracks in the last few hours before the beginning of another busy work week.

Fingers curling around ghost drumsticks in his hands, Akihiko counted four lectures on his schedule for tomorrow as he tailed Haruki to the backstage waiting rooms after their show. His heart still resonated with the heavy thud of his bass drum as he played on stage not too long ago with his bandmates, waiting for his nerves to sober from the thrill and excitement he felt performing for an audience. He vividly recalled the glints from Ritsuka's polished lead guitar and Mafuyu's microphone stand, the royal sheen of his cymbals akin to the gloss of Haruki's hair.

He remembered the stage floor washed in stone white light then splashed with varied colors; the liminal space between Given and the watching crowd blurred as though the end of the stage was also the edge of the world.

Ritsuka earned landslide cheers when he brandished his soulful chords and riffs during the bridge of their new song, Mafuyu smiled as he sang with eyes closed while beads of sweat slid down his neck. Shuffling among his snare and toms and hi-hats on his chair, Akihiko was simply there, hitting and tapping and pounding around his drum set as he usually would until he caught Haruki glance at him around their final chorus, plucking his bass with a smile and casually licked his lips.

Haruki _licked his lips_. At him. While they were on stage playing their song.

 _HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!_ he screamed downright flustered and in an absolute panic how he could still keep the steady beat on the drums while his heart palpitated frantically in his chest. He hit his crash cymbals slightly harder, stepped on the bass pedal a little heavier, venting and divulging every. Single. Grain of self-control he could muster from abandoning his drumsticks altogether, walk up to the bassist and pull the man into a deep kiss right there on the stage for a whole audience to see…

Alas, such fantasy was a harmonious fugue he needed to cut short. Back to the real world he went as the main hall erupted in generous cheers and claps when they finished their last song, headed backstage as the curtains fell once more to let the fourth band lead the finale of the show. While Ritsuka and Mafuyu changed their damp shirts in one of the dressing rooms, Haruki chatted with some upperclassmen in the hallway, leaving Akihiko stationed at the open door with his mind lingering about his boyfriend's lips being licked by a pink tongue that he silently wished to taste…

Needless to say, that was several minutes ago, as far as Akihiko was aware. After scrambling to bury his blush-inducing stage hangover at the back of his mind all that time, he found himself ironically heading back to the same hallway accompanying Haruki to retrieve a forgotten phone charger in their dressing room. 

Akihiko's cheeks sparked warm as he followed Haruki's trail, his once-entombed fantasies happily rising from their graves waving at him with a mischievous 'Hi.' He knew better than to wave back and entertain their naughty ideas, but the longer his bandmate's propinquity lasted throughout the night, Akihiko was nearing the end of his reel with no new one to take its place and keep his refined self going.

"Huh. Now where did it put it?" asked Haruki, checking the sockets around the room.

"Found it," Akihiko answered, pulling out the missing changer stashed in one of the dressing table drawers.

"Oh, good. Thank goodness." Haruki opened a palm for Akihiko to hand it back but this boyfriend seemed to have other ideas when he stashed it in his back pocket instead. "Ha-ha. Very funny," he said flatly but saw Akihiko not budging from his spot.

"Wrestle me for it."

"What."

"Wrestle me," Akihiko repeated, smirk perfectly drawn on his lips.

"No way! Don't you see this, Karate Boy?!" Haruki flexed his left arm with hardly a bulk of developed muscle. " _You_ are obviously thick as an oak tree! And _I_ am a blade of grass!" he cried, slowly backpedaling as Akihiko inched forward with hands ready to grapple and K.O. his opponent. 

"Say, Haruki, I've been wanting to ask," said Akihiko. "Have you ever thought of letting down your hair while playing in front of everyone?"

Cornered as a mouse behind the open the door of the dressing room, rosy hues suffused Haruki's cheeks as his boyfriend closed their distance until the tips of their shoes could almost kiss. "Ehh? It'd be a bother, wouldn't it? It gets all over your face and those spotlights aren't exactly comfy for a long time either!"

"Hmmm. Point," Akihiko dismissed the thought, seeing Haruki nervously avert his gaze and swallow a lump in his throat. Without a word, he stepped back, returning the man's personal space and handed back the phone charger in admitted defeat. "Come on, let's go back. Ue-sama and the others are waiting," he said, turning his heels to head out the door.

"W-Wait," called Haruki, stopping Akihiko in his tracks. The man reached for the hair elastic at the back his head and pulled it loose, letting a flow of amber locks cascade to his shoulders as fresh honey would ooze down a honeycomb. "…Like this?" Haruki asked, face blushing with warm inviting eyes.

Rendered mute as he gazed at the bassist, Akihiko wrestled _with himself_ restraining from quietly shutting the door and circling his arms around Haruki's waist, pinning the man against the wall and teasing back those soft lips and pink tongue that had been bothering him for the past half hour.

 _Yes, exactly like that._

"Haruki, we're outside," reminded Akihiko gently, cheeks and ears feeling warm again as though he was back on stage with spotlights over his head.

"Just… just this once? I guess?" Haruki said, gaze elsewhere in the room and sucking his lower lip. 

_You know I won't say no, but why is this too easy?_

"Just this once," he echoed, closing the distance between them for a second attempt and leaned forward until their noses touched. Haruki's breath warmed his lips as he brushed past the man's mouth and planted a soft kiss on the right cheek instead, equally shy and careful as he tucked back the smooth locks behind his boyfriend's right ear.

"Wait, that's it?"

Akihiko blinked slow-witted at Haruki.

"You've been a cat and everything and you're only giving… _that?_ "

"I didn't know if you'd be okay with it since we're outsiiiiii—" Right before Akihiko could say the rest, Haruki finished the sentence for him by gently pulling their mouths close and letting them meet, breathing a little moan as he felt the man's wet tongue slipping in between his lips. Akihiko chuckled and smiled, touching Haruki's neck as he tilted his head to inflame their kiss and heard a content sigh. Swarms of butterflies dispersed from his chest, flying free from their cages made of bones, heart laid exposed to the world with all its scars and blemishes still beating steadily as Akihiko would play the drums.

Haruki laughed, tickled by Akihiko's feather-light fingers brushing over his nape and parted their kiss, palm over the taller man's heart as he smiled feeling the light thumps through his shirt. "You played good today, Mr. Oak Tree," he said, patting Akihiko's chest, threads of rich gold perfectly framing his face.

"Same to you, Sir Blade of Grass. Same to you," replied Akihiko, taking Haruki's hand and brushing over the man's fingers with his lips, tasting a floral sweetness that reminded him of honey.  
  


***  
  


"Found it?" Kouji asked.

"Yep," replied Haruki, hand waving with the phone charger and returned it to the woman beside his best friend who looked uncannily similar to Ritsuka. "Thanks, Yayoi-chan. I owe you one for that."

"It's fine," she said, stuffing it back inside her small satchel. "You two came back fast… unlike my brother." 

"If girls can spend a long time in bathrooms, why can't boys do the same?" Kouji teased. 

"Yeah, but what would _guys_ do in there?"

The man shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and casually shrugged. "Can be anything. Share gossip, fix our hair, settle a debate, transact business…"

"Play hide-and-seek," supplied Haruki.

"Bet in the lottery," added Akihiko.

Yayoi looked ready to smack Kouji with her little satchel when a man passed by who immediately recognized her bespectacled boyfriend.

"Yatake?" he asked, voice clear and bright that matched his youthful face.

"Eyyyyy, Senpai. Hello," Kouji greeted smoothly, hands still raised yielding to Yayoi's deadly leather purse. 

The man was average in height, shorter than Haruki, wearing a dark blazer jacket and a black fedora over his wavy shoulder-length hair. On his loud print shirt was a logo of four snakes winding up a ladder in a geometric-style design that Akihiko knew he saw somewhere before. "You showed up too, huh?" he said, mouth slanted in a presuming grin.

"Support," Kouji clarified, hooking his thumb to point at Akihiko and Haruki to his right and the man's face lit up with his mouth agape.

"OH!! You guys were on stage earlier!" he enthused, eyes sparkling as he looked up at the two taller members of Given. "That was _amazing!_ Both of you were on fire out there! Your vocalist has some voice power for sure, I was hooked! And your guitarist! Ohhh man, the crowd was floored! Ah, I'm Hijiri, by the way. Yatake here did the A-sha for my band before and we've been going to each other's gigs ever since."

"Take-chan also did ours," said Haruki after bowing to their new acquaintance, and Akihiko did the same. "After much scolding on his part that is."

"Can relate! Can relate! But the suffering is worth it though," Hijiri chuckled while Haruki dodged his best friend's flat stare. "Ahh, the band list tonight was really good. I mean, look at this crowd. The Garage doesn't always fill up like this every week and it just makes you think maybe someday, you'll see one of these names having cons at Budoukan and stuff." 

"Senpai, after the last band, how was it?" Kouji asked, stepping aside as two guests passed by passionately flailing about Skylark and The Cinders, and Akihiko noticed the warm smile on Hijiri's face.

"Ahh, that. Hmm, I booked a slot next weekend at Club Seata, so that's that," he told his friend. "I already informed Manager-san about it two nights ago and he didn't press it further."

"Then before coming here, you've already made up your mind."

Hijiri nodded to confirm Kouji's guess. "I still wanted to watch The Cinders perform though. Maybe to let everything sink in with a sound note, I guess? They're really good already as they are, and I know they're also passionate about music, same with me and my band," he said, clarity in his tone without a hint of regret. "When you find people who've still stayed with you through one crazy year after another, it already feels you've struck the right piñata, I think. Bad days or none, debut or not, I've pulled through a lot of things with them and I'm not letting that go."

"The corporate suit is definitely kaput?" 

Hijiri chuckled. "That one? Oh man, Dad was _angry_ and I expected that, but we... 'talked', as you'd call it. I told him how he also started small with his firm as a country-bumpkin lost in a big city back then and he also shared his thoughts as a concerned parent."

"Words between father and son?"

"Yeah," said the older musician. "I thought a hundred years passed by after we talked but it’s done and over with. Dad said he'd still keep an eye out, and as much as I want to keep going on this path, he told me to show up every now and then at home."

"I'm glad, senpai," Kouji replied, smiling as Yayoi gently leaned against his shoulder patiently listening to their talk. 

"Oy oy oy, I’m not going anywhere you hear me?" 

"Hijiri? We're going for some drinks," called a person from the crowd, sticking out like a sore thumb with his strawberry blonde hair and towering height.

The man grimaced and his friend sputtered laughing, then pointed to their other two other band members waiting by the lobby exit. "Right. That's my cue." Hijiri said with a grin, excusing himself to take his leave. "See you around, guys. Nice seeing you again, Yayoi-chan!" After a wave goodbye, he turned his heels and vanished into the mass of people while Akihiko wondered if he and Haruki had spare time next weekend for a casual date attending a different gig.

"Did we miss anything?" Ritsuka arrived to join them at the bar hall with Mafuyu close behind. "Sorry for the wait. We tried the upstairs bathroom but turns it was also the same."

"You have _fans_ , Uecchi! I'm so proud!" Haruki cried, wiping a pretend tear at the corner of his eye.

"Mafuyu will have legions of followers, I can see it now!" added Akihiko, feigning a tiny sob.

"Senpai, we can start your band’s FC as early as now," Kouji followed suit, hand over his heart with a quivering lip.

"You two good to go?" Yayoi said plainly, the only question needed to be asked.

The teens nodded while she checked her watch, reading thirty minutes before the schoolboys' curfews and enough time to wrap up their Sunday evening.

Lyrics were sung, guitars were plucked and strummed, lights on the stage would soon switch off and fade to black as the hours of the night reached its peak. Halls would empty, speakers sit unplugged, doors would close as guests wound their ways home to rest, to sleep, or for some to work even more. 

Accompanying their two bandmates and two friends to the lobby exit, Akihiko curled his fingers and no longer felt the hum in his veins as he remembered his first lecture tomorrow started at nine in the morning. Drumsticks laid to rest until his next band practice at the studio, those same rough hands would soon delicately hold the bow of his violin as he started a new weekday, strumming smooth elegant notes that wove stories of their own, pulling characters out books or putting stars in the sky with his own callused fingers.

And he loved it. He loved the fact his days were inseparable from music, whether day or night, it was a part of his life and found no excuse to be unheard. He could play his instruments, say what he wanted to say, vocal cords functioning normally and could speak human words that can be understood.

"Ah, pardon me!" A guest apologized after he bumped Haruki's shoulder, waking a small round chime at his back as the man bowed before scooting into the thinning crowd.

"That bell. It's cute," said Mafuyu, spotting a gold charm from one of the zippers of Haruki's guitar bag dangling from a thin silk ribbon. 

"Oh, a little gift," Haruki replied, pushing open the glass doors and stepping out into the late evening air with a smile, a few stars twinkling over their heads listening to their shared goodnights. "It has a nice ring, doesn't it?"  
  


***  
  


Epilogue  
  


"Haaaaaaargh," his boyfriend groaned, face buried in his hands with his ears flushed pink. "You do remember just last week you were strutting around my apartment completely naked, right?"

"But that's _exactly_ how she said it: 'How big is the deck?', 'How wide is the deck?' and I completely forgot my professor was teaching geometry for ten minutes and don't know if anyone else noticed."

"Can we not…? Whenever you'd groom yourself, it was so awkward for me, you know?? You licking all over your body, your tail, your… _fur_ ," Haruki continued, struggling to elaborate his point as they walked along the Tama River headed for their apartments. "And I couldn't stop… touching you here and there, it just felt so nice and reassuring whenever I see you all curled up so small and soft…"

"Yeah. That was nice," he recalled, tranquil and composed as he watched the passing trains in the distance while the river water reflected smidges of white lights. "Hey, remember that time when you were petting me while watching TV, and your hand went between legs and brushed over my—"

"STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT RIGHT THERE!"

"I was about to say _thigh_ when you found that grain of rice stuck on my fur," continued Akihiko, sleazy grin forming on his lips. "Heeeeehhhh…"

"Oh, don't 'Heeehh' me! I swear, one day, I'll… I'll… shave off those puny eyebrows of yours and draw one big fat unibrow over them with a Sharpie."

"Frida Kahlo?"

"I was thinking Imoto-san," Haruki muttered under his breath. 

"You really liked that schoolgirl uniform pic of me, huh?" teased Akihiko, enjoying the sight of his boyfriend's knitted brows. "You can draw on me anywhere, Haru. Dress me up however you want. Won't complain at all."

"Huh. No way, no way. You're _not a doll_ , silly," replied Haruki, waving a hand dismissing the thought.

Another train passed by in the opposite tracks as they neared the end of the riverside path and Akihiko heard a few chirping crickets hidden in the grass, realizing what his boyfriend had just said. "Right," he answered, omitting the 'My bad' about to escape from his tongue. "Say, Haruki, do you have time next weekend to meet up?"

Watching the trail of white squares from the train car windows, Haruki sifted through his schedule while Akihiko waited for his reply. "Hmm, he mused, looking up and hardly finding any stars to count in the sky. "Yeah, I can. Have something in mind?"

"A gig at Kichioji."

"Club Seata?"

"Yeah."

"Sure, why not?" Haruki smiled at him, easily saying his answer. "Still a bit starry-eyed, huh?"

"I'm curious," replied Akihiko. "I saw their drummer's solo on YouTube. He's good."

"Then who knows, our band will get a debut offer too."

"Yeah," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets with a content sigh. "Imagine what Ue's reaction would be to _that_."

"He'd probably go all deer in headlights like this," Haruki made a dumbstruck face, "and go blank for ten seconds letting the fact sink in," he said, chuckling to himself.

"You'd think he's the type to go 'Yessss!!!' right away but nope, not our Ue-sama."

Haruki nodded, supporting his view. "Mafuyu-chan would be surprised too, I think. But… I'm not sure, I don't see him as diving into it straight away either."

"What would the band leader think?" asked Akihiko, glancing at Haruki as lights from nearby lamp posts carved the dips and curves of his face.

"Well? I—MOTHER EARTH!!" the man squealed, nearly jumping out of his skin and clung to Akihiko by instinct, startled out of his composure as a stray cat appeared to cross his path. Left eye lighter than the right, the cat meowed at Haruki and Akihiko with its glowing pupils and tail raised straight, walked off to the other side of the asphalt walkway relaxed in its gait.

Hand on his boyfriend's back, Akihiko began sputtering overwhelmed in humor, finding a human-sized magnet stuck to his side in the shape of Nakayama Haruki. He chuckled and wheezed, snorted and guffawed, clutching his stomach and bending over as peals of laughter bubbled up his throat.

Tickled by Akihiko's sounds of joy, Haruki also began to giggle and soon also burst into hearty chuckles, tossing his head back and walking in drunk circles around the asphalt path. The sleepiness of the night all forgotten, the two bandmates laughed until their sides turned sore, smiling and wiping the dampness at the corner of their eyes as they caught their breaths.

Panting and huffing until his lungs could rest, Akihiko drank all of Haruki's rich laughs until his heart was full to the brim with exploding stars and splashes of colors, blooming flowers and dandelion weeds being blown away by the man's sweet breaths. To any passer-by overhearing echoes of their mirth, Haruki's voice was a normal resonance of glee, but not to Akihiko, whose ears were trained and tuned to any music he heard.

Bright rings and chimes of bells were all he could think of, light and glittering as a shower of bountiful gold. And this time, Akihiko wasn't shying away from it, standing under the trickles of fortune heaven imparted to him, opening his hands with a smile on his face and let slivers of happiness land on his palms no matter how they small they would be.

Ah, he felt blessed indeed.  
  
  


***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Imoto Ayako or simply "Imoto-san": a comedienne appearing in different Japanese variety shows known for her drawn thick eyebrows and attire of a schoolgirl uniform.  
> \- Hijiri's story is borrowed from an episode in the jdrama Ochanomizu Rock.  
> \- Haruki's "cat superpower" is purely made-up but based on his keen awareness of other's moods like his uneasiness around Yayoi the first time they met.  
> \- ["Wagahai wa Neko de Aru" by Natsume Soseki.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62772.I_Am_a_Cat)  
> \- Edited 06/18/20: Added a missing part of the dialogue with Hijiri mentioning his dad.
> 
> Other notes:  
> \- As the manga progresses, here’s me hoping Akihiko will continue to bloom into a better person not just for Haruki but also to himself.  
> \- Meow-ny purrs and thanks paw reading!


End file.
